


Perception

by Raven_Ehtar



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alpha Tony Stark, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Banter, Belligerent Sexual Tension, Canon Dialogue, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, During Canon, Enemies, Enemies to ???, M/M, Mind Control, Omega Loki (Marvel), Omega Verse, POV Alternating, Pre-Slash, The Avengers (2012) - Freeform, Unreliable Narrator, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 22:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18765133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Ehtar/pseuds/Raven_Ehtar
Summary: Loki is bringing the Chitauri to Earth, and Tony's the only one around to face him down, alpha to alpha. Except...isLoki an alpha...?orThe Frostiron scene from Avengers (2012) but in Omegaverse.





	Perception

**Author's Note:**

> Story number 8 for Story a Day May!
> 
> This is the first time I've ever worked with the A/B/O dynamic, despite reading it a lot. I've got some vague ideas for doing something in this kind of universe with Frostiron, but nothing super definite. This is me playing around with the idea, getting a feel for how to write it, and laying out some of my ideas for background - what would have happened during canon events for anything I might write later in A/B/O with Frostiron. 
> 
> Still working on writing and editing at a sprinting pace. If you spot any errors, feel free to point them out, I'll get them fixed when I have a chance! ♥

“Shut it down, Dr. Selvig.”

“It’s too late!” The doctor turned away from him, and looked at the strange contraption which had been put together on the roof of Stark Tower, the tesseract nestled in its center, acting as the power source.

“She can’t stop now,” he went on, his voice taking on a tone of unhinged wonder. “She wants to show us something! A new universe…”

When he turned back to Tony, he could see how the man’s whole appearance was… wrong. His face was unshaven, his lips dry, as though he hadn’t drunk any water in ages, and his eyes… There was no way that was a natural color. Tony hadn’t seen Barton up close before he’d been… _recalibrated_ … but he had a sneaking suspicion that he would have shared a few similarities with Selvig.

If there’d been any doubt in his mind before, it was gone now. Selvig was under Loki’s control, and there would be no convincing him to cooperate.

That was fine. He had other options.

“Okay.” He fired up the repulsors, taking direct aim at the tesseract. It was acting as its own power source, so if he just took it out…

He fired, the blasts flying true—

And was thrown backwards by a shockwave. Not a shockwave of the tesseract being destroyed or even budged, but a reflected shockwave. Tony flipped through the air, his damaged suit taking too long to stabilize him. When he balanced out, the suit complaining and riding even rougher than before, the machine and the tesseract were still in place. Dr. Selvig was down, but the HUD quickly informed him that he was still alive. With any luck, he’d hit his head just hard enough to shake off the mind control.

Not that that was going to help Tony much right now.

“The barrier is pure energy,” JARVIS informed him calmly. “It’s unbreachable.”

“Yeah, I got that.” He bit back a curse. Too late. He’d arrived just a little too late. He’d read enough of the tesseract’s history to know what a terror the thing could be once it was being exploited as a weapon. It was practically unstoppable, dangerous to even be near. And if it was protecting itself…

He couldn’t attack it directly, and Dr. Selvig was down for the time being, which left one of the few remaining options left.

He looked down. Below, Loki was watching him with interest.

“Plan B.”

He didn’t take his eyes off of the man as he came down. Loki stood, calm as you please, watching Tony as he came in for a landing with a small smile playing at his lips. Tony had only been in the Asgardian’s company a couple of times, and had watched him on a screen a couple more than that, and he was coming away with the very strong impression that the smile was something which never left the man’s face, no matter what was happening. The world itself could be falling apart, and Tony suspected that Loki would still be smiling, laughing at some internal joke.

“Sir, the Mark 7 is not ready for deployment.”

“Then skip the spinning rims, we’re on the clock.”

Tony landed with a clang, the suit’s fine tuning completely gone. The lack of cushioning on touchdown made his joints protest even more than they already had been after his tumble through the Helicarrier’s turbines. It was a reminder, however unwelcome, that he was walking into this already injured. He might still be about to fight, but he wasn’t at 100%, and he was going up against someone who wasn’t even human, and who had abilities he – who _no one_ seemed to be fully aware of.

Someone who kept staring at him with that damned, enigmatic smile.

 _Keep moving_ , he told himself. Walking down the ramp, his suit was stripped away from him. He kept his pace brisk, never taking his eyes off of Loki. _Don’t let it look like you’re hurt. He’ll eat you alive if you show weakness_.

For his part, Loki was also watching Tony, but his gaze was less intense. His posture wasn’t one that screamed aggression, or stalking, or any sort of dominance display. His arms were relaxed and at his sides. The scepter was in his hand, but it too remained lax. For all the attention Loki was giving it, he might as well have been holding a stick.

And still with that smile.

Loki was walking too, opposite of him, heading inside where Tony was going. It was an odd dichotomy. With Loki’s posture telegraphing nearly zero aggression, and yet he was still matching Tony step for step in circling one another. Tony wondered if it was deliberate, a way of confusing him and his instincts in order to gain an edge.

Thor had said that his brother was clever. Apparently that extended into manipulating his own alpha tendencies to confuse his enemies.

They made it inside, and Loki took the lead in the confrontation by speaking first.

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity.”

Tony stomped down the urge to shiver at the tone. However unaggressive Loki was projecting himself to be in his body language, his true intentions were easy enough to _hear_. His voice was naturally low, his accent odd but cultured, so the words rolled off of his tongue, his sentence ending in a low growl at the back of his throat.

Tony had spent his entire life in the company of powerful people of all genders, secondaries and combinations thereof. He was used to the idea and the reality of others attempting to manipulate him through means both subtle and obvious, and had experience with how to handle it and turn those attempts to his advantage. This wasn’t even the first time he’d had to deal with that reality outside of a boardroom… but it was one of the few times where the power play was so blatantly obvious. Where it was so straightforward as two alphas going head to head against one another.

It made Tony’s blood race in a way which no other confrontation really had before. It was instinctual, practically primitive, and for once… there was no real need to stomp it down _completely_. He needed to keep his wits about him, but beyond that there would be no reason to hold back the impulses which were already telling him to pounce on the man in front of him.

“Uh, actually,” he said, keeping his own tone level and light, his hands behind him in a show of peace, “I’m planning to threaten you.”

“You should have left your armor on for that,” the Asgardian said, gesturing with the scepter.

“Yeah,” he agreed, doing his best to show no reaction whatsoever to the scepter moving. He walked down the stairs which would bring them closer together, all the time lamenting the fact that he would be losing that small advantage of height. It was almost useless, considering who it was he was pitting himself against, outside of his armor, as Loki had pointed out. Useless, but still a little bit of a bolster to his confidence. “It’s seen a bit of mileage, and you’ve got the glow stick of destiny.”

He gestured vaguely towards the scepter, getting Loki to look down at it, almost as though he’d forgotten he was holding it.

“Would you like a drink?”

Loki looked back up, surprise registering for half a second before his lips stretched into a grin, which was much closer to being just a baring of teeth. He had very white, straight teeth, Tony couldn’t help but notice. Loki was a far cry from the bulky powerhouse of his brother, but there was still plenty about him in appearance and in body language which quietly communicated ‘DANGER.’

It was actually a little bit reassuring. It put Tony on ground which felt familiar. Tony’s reputation, as well as his genders, preceded him, and it was common for people to assume that they would know how to approach him, either to get in his good graces or to manipulate him. So through the years, he’d learned to subvert those expectations. He was high profile, high powered, rich, intelligent, and known for having an open bed policy – all of the ingredients which went in to forming a very stereotypical, if idealized, alpha. So Tony went out of his way to undermine himself with his eccentric behavior, his rambling, his loose and careless body language… those things and countless others to convey the idea that he was less of a threat than he actually was. That he would be easy to manipulate.

Loki, by contrast, seemed to be one who was going to some lengths to prove that he _was_ a danger. Subtle signs in how he stood, in the way he was watching Tony, and just knowing who his brother was and how Loki must have felt the need to match his sibling in some way and prove himself an equal… It was the opposite of what Tony was doing, and it gave Tony an advantage. An alpha who was constantly trying to prove that he was a powerful, dangerous potential, would have no idea how to deal with someone like Tony – an alpha who did none of those things, and who was completely unfazed by his performance.

It was probably why an act of hospitality – a traditionally omegan gesture – as a way of responding to a direct threat had him looking so off balance.

“Stalling me won’t change anything,” he warned, still smiling.

“No, no, no, _threatening_.” He watched as the smile faltered slightly on Loki’s face, walking behind the mini bar, and glad to have the structure between him and the Asgardian. He might appear calm enough now, but there was no real way of knowing how long that would last, how likely he would be to turn from calm to enraged at a moment’s notice. It didn’t help that they were so far apart that he had to rely purely on visual for the man’s mood, what was running through his head, when it was already questionable how much of that Tony could actually _trust_.

There was no scent to tell him what Loki might _really_ be feeling, no sign beyond his direct control for Tony to tap into and have some clue…

—•—

“No drink, are you sure?” the man known as Anthony Edward Stark asked him, calmly walking behind his bar and seeking out the decanter he wanted, taking his eyes away from Loki, acting as though he weren’t even there, as though he weren’t a threat to him—to his entire _planet_.

“I’m having one.”

Anger twisted in Loki’s gut, nearly taking his breath away. Things were… confused, muddled just now, just as they had been for quite some time. Since arriving on Midgard, there had been times, very brief times when he had felt almost himself. When the rage and the terror had subsided just enough for him to see where it was all leading him – just enough for that, but never quite enough for him to _do_ anything about it.

Which only made him angrier. And being made angry only made the hold which He had over him all the stronger. He tried to let the anger go, but its grip on him was too tight, too bound up in who he was anymore. The very nature of his arrival on Midgard, his very personal and continued subjugation which kept him here, ostensibly in charge of his own will and his actions, but controlled from afar…

It boiled his blood in his veins. Omegan he might be, but _never_ had he been a puppet to anyone’s will. He was a Prince, a mage, a trickster too clever to be caught in any dull alpha’s attempts at control. The very idea that anyone would come so far as to think that they would even have a _chance_ to get the best of him was enough to set his teeth on edge and his fingers itching with magic to unleash.

And then he’d learned the truth. That his life had been nothing but a lie, his entire _existence_ one which was under the control of an alpha who wanted only to use him – though in this case it was all to a political advantage.

The Mad Titan had looked into his mind, seen all the lever of anger and control left with no one at the helm, and taken that role for himself. He had taken the seat of power in Loki’s mind, and set up an almost perfect feedback loop:

Loki’s anger was the key to keeping his mind under control, and being under another’s control was the surest way to keep him angry.

It turned out he was a real omega after all. Easily controlled and manipulated, once someone learned what it was it took to do it.

And now he was faced with _this_ man, this _human alpha_ , who thought he could manipulate him as well! He could see what the man was doing, undermining expectation, throwing him off his beat. It was an unorthodox approach, but one Loki had encountered before. The man, in the middle of a battle of life and death, was positioning himself as an omega.

An _alpha_ was acting in typical _omegan_ ways to him – an omega who was obviously positioning himself in a very alpha position. He was debasing himself, against his alpha instincts, in order to play to Loki’s desire for control, for dominance…

All a trick. It was all a play, pretending vulnerability in order to make Loki _think_ he was the one in charge.

It was so transparent. So obvious.

And it enraged him, when he was trying his best to remain calm. He had to regain control – not from this human, but from the Mad Titan, still sitting inside his mind. As much as he _wished_ he could charge at the human and _prove_ that it was he who was in control, whatever the human alpha and all his pathetic manipulations might think… that was not his true enemy. He could not fall into the trap Stark was laying for him.

If he did, it would be a trap which would catch him, the man who had laid it, and all the rest of Midgard.

With a barely repressed snarl, he turned away. It was unwise to take his eyes away from a man who at the least _believed_ Loki was his enemy, but he couldn’t keep looking at him and hope to regain any sort of control over himself. He stalked to the windows, looking over the city. It was strange, foreign to him, but full of lives. Lives which would all end, many of them after living through a hell of terror, if he couldn’t find some way of stopping what was about to happen.

“The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that.” A warning, clear and simple. A warning of what was to come, and what they, this man and his team, would be facing up against.

But not so much of a warning that the one who was listening in on his words would hear him and know that the control was beginning to slip…

He turned, risking another look at the alpha who made his blood heat to dangerous levels. “What have I to fear?”

Seemingly uncaring and unconcerned about the man who threatened to destroy his entire world, Stark was concentrated entirely on his drink, opening a decanter full of amber liquid.

“The Avengers,” he said. When he looked up and noticed what must have been a puzzled expression on his face, Stark rolled his eyes self-depreciatingly. “That’s what we call ourselves. We’re sort of like a team, ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ type thing.”

The alcohol gurgled into the glass in front of Stark. Even at a distance, the sharp scent of it struck Loki’s nose, and he remembered how long it had been since he had eaten or drunk anything other than what was strictly necessary to survive.

 _Calm_.

“Yes. I’ve met them.”

Stark smiled at him, as though they were sharing a joke. His eyes were the same color as the liquid in his glass, his grin wide and generous, revealing a good set of teeth, hints of points lurking in the corners of his smile. “Yeah… It takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that one. But let’s do a head count here: your brother, the demigod…”

The anger rose up in him again, hot and sudden at the mention of Thor. Baring his teeth, and managing to do nothing more than scoff when he wanted to snarl, he turned away again, his grip on the scepter in his hand tightening until his knuckles ached. Stark continued to talk, apparently enamored of the sound of his own voice – _Typical alpha_ , he couldn’t help thinking – listing off all of the members who he included on his ‘Avengers team.’ Loki concentrated on his breathing, managing to turn his grin back on Stark when he came to the one with the ‘breath-taking anger management issues.’

If only he knew how widespread a problem that was.

“… and _you_ , big fella, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.”

Loki smiled, and for the first time in the conversation, it felt at least a little bit genuine. “That was the plan.”

“Not a great plan.”

Except that it was. It got their attention, it forced them to realize that _something_ was coming. It made them look at themselves, hash out whatever it was which was dividing them and bring them together to fight the one thing which they all had in common.

They believed it was Loki. That was close enough for now.

Stark began moving, walking around the side of the bar, removing the one barrier which he had left between the two of them, pathetic enough protection though it had been.

“When they come,” he said, he eyes fixing on Loki for the first time in what Loki would call a serious, _engaging_ stare, “and they _will_ , they’ll come for you.”

With nothing between them any longer, Stark was squaring himself against Loki, standing directly before him, stalking— _stalking_ towards him, all while maintaining that challenging eye contact.

Loki _was_ a threat to him. He’d said that he intended to threaten right back. But this behavior, it wasn’t quite… It was the behavior Loki would have expected of an alpha who was…

Challenging another alpha.

As a way of making his anger dissipate, it was by far the most effective he had come across in months. Instead of anger, all he had left was confusion.

Words evaded him, and he said the first and only thing which came to mind as a response. “I have an army.”

“We have a Hulk,” the challenging alpha shot back. And he _was_ being a challenging alpha. There was no mistaking the way he was coming nearer to him, now that Loki knew what he was seeing.

“I thought the beast had wandered off?”

It was, he would admit even in his confounded, muddled state, more difficult than he would have thought to hold his ground as Stark continued to stalk nearer to him. Why that would be, the simple change in perception, of knowing of how _Stark_ thought of _him_ , he couldn’t think. Why should it matter what a human thought of him, if the human thought that he was an alpha? All it proved was that the man was simpler than he’d thought he was, and easily led astray – since it had happened without Loki even intending for it _to_ happen.

He could understand how such a realization of the man’s shortcomings would frustrate him, since he was relying on this man, as supposedly one of the most intelligent of the team, to understand what was really happening and to combat it.

But why should, after such a realization, it become so difficult to hold his ground now that the true alpha was stalking towards him across the floor? Why should the realization of his delusion make him want to give ground, to _defer?_

“You’re missing the point,” Stark was saying, his tone losing some of its softness. “There’s no throne. There’s no version of this where you come out on top.” He stopped, holding Loki’s stare, a brief pause to allow the other alpha – ha – an opportunity to rejoin with threats and promises of his own. When Loki remained silent, Stark seemed happy enough to fill the silence. “ _Maybe_ your army comes, and _maybe_ it’s too much for us, but it’s all on _you_. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it.”

It was too much. Watching as the man took a sip of his drink, taking the time to challenge _him_ , when _he_ wasn’t the true threat, and go on to say that he was fine with his planet _dying_ , so long as he was still around to take revenge for it…

Moronic. Absolutely moronic _alpha posturing_. This man was meant to be _clever_ , and he still couldn’t see all of the clues Loki was managing, _somehow_ , through all of the controls the Mad Titan and the Other had on him, to leave out in the open for him to find, because he was too distracted by his own need to _assert_ himself. This world, and then soon after _every_ world was going to die, because this idiot alpha couldn’t control his own instincts long enough to use his damned brain.

It made him angry. It filled him with such rage that the small amount of control he’d managed to take back for himself evaporated, and he was no longer his own man…

—•—

Something changed in the Asgardian’s eyes. Something which made them go hot and then steely in an instant. His posture changed, as well. Where before he had simply been standing in the middle of the floor, strong and unmovable as Tony stalked towards him, now it looked as though he really had his hackles up. His shoulders tightened and rose, his head lowered just slightly, and his face darkened into a scowl. Tony’s heart stuttered at the sight. It had been some time since he’d been on the receiving end of such a direct, intense challenge… and this was certainly the one where he had ever felt the most _threatened_.

Loki started towards him, not quite a stalk and not quite a prowl, but every step loaded with _intent_ , his eyes never leaving his for a second.

“How will your friends have time for me,” he growled – and it _was_ a growl, going straight through to the pit of Tony’s stomach like hot lead, “when they’re so busy fighting _you?_ ”

There was a lot to register in only a few seconds – how close Loki had gotten in what felt like a blink, how _tall_ the man was, how his proximity seemed to bring with it unbearable heat, the unnatural blue sheen of his eyes, the way his lips pulled back from his teeth to make room from the snarl, his hand—his scepter coming up to him—

_Tink._

—•—

The anger pulled away for a moment, again leaving only confusion.

Loki looked down. The scepter was pressed against Stark’s chest, over his heart, where the magic from the stone it held ought to have sunk in and infiltrated the man’s mind.

Instead, the magic was dissipating uselessly into the air, unused.

Frowning, he pulled the scepter away and tried again, his muddled thoughts offering no other action as a logical one to take.

Again, the scepter refused to go any further than the man’s shirt, stopping with a _tink_.

In the disorder of Loki’s thoughts, all which came out clearly was the thought that the humans had picked an apt warrior’s name for someone whose flesh could apparently repulse weapons.

‘Iron Man’ indeed.

“This usually works…”

“Well, performance issues, it’s not _un_ common…” Loki glanced up, not certain he was hearing correctly. “One out of five,” Stark was saying.

Yes, he _was_ hearing correctly. It just seemed as though this man were tailor made to piss him off.

—•—

In retrospect, that probably hadn’t been the cleverest thing to do. Then again, that could have been said about the majority of the things Tony said to a lot of people. But making fun of a villainous demigod’s potency to his face while _he_ was unarmed… that was probably one of the worst decisions he’d made in a while. At least a week.

He hit the floor hard. He forgot how hard floors were when he wasn’t inside his tin can. Which reminded him.

“JARVIS, anytime now.” He pushed himself up onto his knees. He had to get up, there was an enraged demigod who was still on his feet and stalking towards him – he could hear him coming closer.

It still didn’t prepare him for the moment when his throat was grabbed for a second time and he was lifted to, and then _off of_ his feet.

What was it with the throat grabbing, anyway? Did the guy have something against him breathing? Well, actually, yes, he probably did, come to that.

Loki held him close, face less than an inch from his as he snarled at him in absolute rage. “You will _all_ fall before _me_.”

“Deploy,” he managed to get out, and tried to take in a little air. It was difficult, but not impossible. Loki’s grip wasn’t enough to completely block his airways, and he dragged in a sip of air.

This close, he was finally able to make out the scent of Loki – far too late to do any good, he considered, since there was no mistaking what his intents were, confounding body language or no, sense of smell or no. There was leather, sweat and metal and the weird scent which the stone in the scepter seemed to constantly give off. Below all of those, however, were the scents which much have been Loki’s, faint and almost drowned out under all of the rest. No wonder he hadn’t been able to pick it out when they had been a room away from one another.

He smelled of… smoke. Wood smoke and… old books? It was a strange sort of smell, and incredibly faint. Tony didn’t think he’d ever met another alpha whose scent was so incredibly weak. Normally that sort of intensity – or non-intensity – was reserved for omegas who weren’t in heat or even in a mode where they were looking for mates…

… _oh_.

—•—

Even in the state he was in, Loki could see and _understand_ the moment Stark realized what he was. His nostrils widened as they took in the scent of him, his brow furrowing as his stupid alpha mind tried to process what it was he was taking in and set it against all of the assumptions he had made up until that point.

Then his eyes widened, and swiveled towards him. The realization had been had, and underneath all of the anger, Loki felt a small stab of pride at the absolute shock, the disbelief playing over the man’s face as he mouthed the word,

_“Omega?”_

It was incredibly satisfying to throw the stupid alpha out the window.

Having to dodge as one of the man’s inventions went screaming past him and followed him out of the window was less so, but he wasn’t about to complain.

He couldn’t even complain that he’d killed off one of the people he’d been intending to help save this wretched planet, as whatever invention that had dived after him plucked Stark out of the air, and he was soon back in front of the broken out window, once again wrapped up in his armor.

“And there’s one other person you pissed off,” Stark’s voice came to him, oddly altered by coming from within the suit. “His name was Phil.”

Loki was glad Stark was inside his suit. His voice and his body language were warped almost to the point of being unrecognizable, disguising  whether he was an alpha or not. It was easier to stare him down, and to raise his scepter against him. He might not be able to take over the man’s mind, but he could have the slight satisfaction of blasting him out of the sky, and send him out, _out_ where the war was about to begin—

Except that the mortal got there before he did. The hum and percussion of the repulsors sounded, and Loki was suddenly sliding across the floor on his back, trying to remember how to breathe.

Far away, he heard the device activate. There was a curse from Stark’s direction, and then the suit’s thrusters kicking on into high gear as the man sped away. From his place on the floor, attempting to catch his breath, Loki smiled.

At least now the man was facing the right direction to try and take down his enemies. And he apparently wasn’t a fool enough to allow himself to be dissuaded from what needed to be done, even if the enemy was an omega.

The ruthlessness was actually somewhat reassuring.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Edit:** Thanks to AliaMael for helping with some typo fluffs! ♥
> 
> \---
> 
> Thanks for reading, everyone!
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


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